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Saturday, 30 December 2017

I hope you've all had an amazing Christmas and you're looking forward to jumping into 2018!

One thing I'm hoping to focus some more of my time on in 2018 is this blog - documenting my business and my personal sewing adventures.

Today I've got another exciting post going live over at Minerva Crafts. I had the opportunity to test some amazing jersey fabric and decided it would be the perfect fabric to make myself a luxurious loungewear set. Using the Named Ninni culottes pattern and the Style Arc Besharl jacket, I managed to make up this amazing outfit that I literally have not taken off!

Sunday, 22 October 2017

I cannot tell you how excited I was for Italian Week! As soon as I heard what the theme would be I knew that we would have to make a pizza. It'a fun to make, there's skills to learn and it's fun for the kids to decorate and get stuck in too.

Logan didn't feel up to participating in the actual baking this week (although he enjoyed the eating!), but Rori loved getting stuck in with the sauce and the dough. I used my own recipe for the sauce which was simply a large can of sieved tomatoes, garlic, salt, olive oil, fresh basil and red wine vinegar. Rori helped to peel the garlic cloves and crush them, and also to pick the basil from our plant and rip it into small pieces. I love it when Rori joins in like this, she's really hands-on and loves to taste all of the ingredients. She attempted to eat a raw garlic clove and was munching on basil too.

Once the sauce was cooked, we made the dough. We used this recipe from BBC Good Food and it's really quick and easy to get together. The only change I made was to use plain flour in place of the strong bread flour, and I didn't think it made any difference at all. Rori is a great kneader and got really stuck in. The dough doesn't need a lot of kneading and if you're after a thin base like we were, there's no need to prove the dough either.

I doubled the dough recipe and yielded 3 large pizzas and one calzone.

We went for a yummy pineapple and veg topping, while the calzone for my Dad, was filled with veggies and chorizo.

We cooked the pizzas on a pizza stone in the oven. The oven was on it's highest setting and I let it heat up for a good half an hour before beginning to cook the pizzas, and the stone was heating in the oven at the same time too.

I brushed a little oil onto the stone to prevent any sticking, rolled the dough (which i had seperated into 4 equal balls) one ball at a time, lifting the flat circle of dough onto the pizza stone. I then cooked the base in the oven without any toppings for around 4 minutes, then added the sauce and toppings and cooked for a further 6 minutes. I pre-cooked the base a little first as I wanted to ensure the base was cooked thoroughly in the middle before loading on the toppings. The result was a lovely thin and crispy pizza each time.

I wouldn't hesitate to make these pizzas again. Making your own dough from scratch really isnt much hassle and being able to add your perfect toppings is brilliant!

Friday, 20 October 2017

I feel like I've finally started kicking off my Autumn/Winter sewing. About time right, I mean it is the middle of October!

We have a trip back to the UK later this month and I am in need of a new winter coat. I decided it was about time I took on a sewing challenge and so sewing my dream coat seemed like it would be the perfect project.

When I happened to stumble across the Oslo Coat pattern by Tessuti, it was pretty much love at first site. I love the simple, tailored feel of the coat, and the gorgeous shawl collar is definitely a bit of me. I've been eyeing up coats exactly like these online and they are in the range of about £200-£300. Which, for a coat, isn't that much I suppose but not something I could justify right now. You can't guarantee the type of labour that's used in the production of fast fashion, and it was just not something I wanted to spend my money on when it would weigh on my conscience so heavily.

Fate stepped in when, just after I had started planning my dream coat, Fabworks had a weekend sale on their wool and I managed to bag 3m of my perfect fabric for £18! I bagged this French Navy Twill for the main fabric of my coat, and also bagged my lining too - this Sapphire Satin Twill. The navy twill is a medium/heavy fabric, and is perfect for the crombie style coat look that I wanted to go for. I chose this lining as I wanted something with a good handle, that wouldn't move around too much when sewing. I went for the sapphire rather than the ink blue as I wanted to have a little contrast in the colours, and for the lining to stand out in it's own right. I am really impressed by both fabrics and would definitely recommend them - especially the lining. I want to buy some of the lining in every colour to be honest - it was so easy to sew with, amazing quality and so cheap too! Only £3 a metre.

The pattern was simple to use and easy to follow. I've never made a fully lined coat before (let alone any type of coat!) and I came into this project with a note of hesitation. I didn't want to get my hopes up too much in case I messed it up! But, with a lot of patience and some help from the Tessuti blog when it came to the lining, hemming and bagging out the coat, the sew went without any hiccups, surprisingly! Bagging out the coat, and sewing the hem was the only time I really had to pause and figure things out. But now that I've done it once, I feel I could do it again without any hesitation.

I stuck the pattern together in one evening. I cut the fabric (main and lining) in another evening. The sew took place over 3 days. I estimate in total that it took roughly 10 hours from to start to finish (including constructing the pattern, ironing the interfacing, the main sewing and the button holes etc.), and for a project of this scale, I think that's a good amount of time to invest for an item of clothing that should last for many years to come. Slow fashion at it's finest.

So to tally up, the main fabric was £6 p/m and I purchased 3 metres. The lining was £3 a metre and I purchased 3m. That's only £27 on fabric! The pattern is 10 australian dollars which works out about £6. I bought good quality interfacing which was around £10, but I still have about half left so we'll call it £5. The buttons came from my stash.

Therefore the total cost for the coat looks like this:

- fabric - £27
- Pattern - £6
- Interfacing - £5

Total cost: £38

Now, I'm pretty darn pleased with that! What do you think of my new coat? Have you got plans to sew any winter staples?

Tuesday, 10 October 2017

The weeks are rolling around so quickly, I can't quite believe it's week 5 already!

We weren't really that prepared for week 5 and to be completely honest, I'm really surprised we managed to bake anything. But a pleasant surprise it was as this weeks bake is my favourite one yet!

When pastry comes to mind, I can't help but think of a pastie. Pasties are the ultimate food! So I thought I would combine my love of pasties with my favourite soup - Leek and Potato - and come up with this yummy recipe.

I used the shortcrust pastry recipe from BBC Good Food, and then I sort of just made the filling up as I went along. These really turned out so delicious, and they were scoffed up in minutes. Logan and Rori loved them so much, I think I've found their new favourite meal, which is great as pasties are so versatile and you can fill them with whatever you have in your cupboards.

The pastry was SO simple to make, it literally took 5 minutes to mix all the ingredients together! I'll be using this recipe again for mince pies at Christmas for sure.

So, here's the recipe for the filling if you'd like to give them a go!

Monday, 9 October 2017

Autumn/Winter is my favourite time of year, and Halloween in particular. Logan's birthday is at the end of October and so we usually get into the festive spirit with a Halloween party and lots of dressing up.

I bought this Halloween print fabric a couple of years ago and didn't get round to using it (ahem - lost in stash), so when I came across it recently I decided I would make myself the ultimate festive attire - a spooky bra! I popped a photo of it on my Instagram account and to be honest I wasn't quite sure how it would be received...but my followers loved it!

I've made it available as fully customisable - so you can pick to have it nursing or regular, and with or without the cage straps.

It's been going down a treat so far and I've been sewing up spooky bras all week! It is a limited edition though, so it won't be around forever. You can check it out in the shop here.